New Delhi: India has logged in 16,311 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours which is India's lowest figure in over six months. With the new additions, the overall tally in the country has reached 1,04,66,595. Prior to this, the lowest number was recorded on January 5 when 16,375 cases were reported in a day.
In a major development, India's daily death toll fell below 200 as it reported 161 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 1,51,160, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Since the last 17 days, less than 300 new deaths have been recorded in the country. Till now, 1,00,92,909 have recovered. Currently, there are 2,22,526 active cases, the ministry added.
The recovery rate stands at 96.43 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.44 as per cent.
The total number of samples tested up to January 10 are 18,17,55,831 including 6,59,209 samples tested on Sunday, the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) said.
Meanwhile, the most-awaited mass vaccination drive in the country is slated to begin from January 16, with approval of two vaccines -- Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and Covishield by Serum Institute of India. The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of drive. One crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers, 26 crore people above the age of 50 and one crore below 50 with comorbidities will be administered the vaccine in the first phase.
Ahead of India's vaccination drive that is scheduled to commence from January 16, PM Modi on Monday will chair a meeting with the Chief Ministers of all states to discuss the preparedness.
Meanwhile, the overall global coronavirus caseload has surpassed the 90 million mark, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.92 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
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